China sticks with zero Covid-19 approach, leaving borders closed for now
- Beijing doubles down on elimination strategy, leaving Hong Kong closed to the mainland until outbreaks are controlled
- Former health minister calls countries trying to live with the virus ‘reckless’ and appears to align with Beijing’s official view
Beijing is set to stick to its zero-tolerance Covid-19 strategy, in a sign that mainland China’s borders will not be opening to Hong Kong or the outside world any time soon.
Dr Joseph Tsang Kay-yan, chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association’s communicable diseases committee, said total elimination of the virus was highly difficult to achieve and if mainland China stuck to its zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19, the reopening of the border with Hong Kong would be further delayed.
“In that case, there will be no end in sight for reopening the border with Hong Kong in the foreseeable future,” he said. “I can’t say it is unachievable. The matter is when? It’s highly difficult to prevent all imported infections.”
Tsang said it was not necessary for China to follow the approach to the pandemic of some Western countries. “But with epidemic control measures in place – such as only vaccinated people who have tested negative for Covid-19 able to cross the border – I see no reason why mainland China can’t reopen the border with Hong Kong,” he said.
In a strongly worded article on the website of the government-affiliated think tank China Health Economics Association on Thursday, former Chinese health minister Gao Qiang rejected the laissez-faire approach to the pandemic, blasting the countries who are following it for “recklessly removing or relaxing epidemic control measures”.
